Mike Drew: Rise and shine

Most afternoons here on the bench lands above the Belly River between Hill Spring and Mountain View, there’s at least a light breeze blowing. But today it was perfectly still with only the sounds of a passing truck receding into the distance and geese feeding somewhere out in a field.

It was a sunny but cold day, the temperature well below average for the first week of March, but the strong sunshine took the edge off the chill. Parked here looking west with the truck windows rolled down and the sunlight warming my face, I could have easily slipped into a short nap, just like some of the mule deer I could see out in the field in front of me.

Mule deer relax on the flats above the Belly River south of Hill Spring, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

It had been cold, too, when I’d left the city a couple of hours before but, normally, whenever I head south I can count on the day warming up. Thanks to an unusual combination of meteorological events, though, the temperature was actually dropping as I rolled along. Just a few days before, overnight temperatures had dropped to close to -40 C down along the Montana border, crazy cold at any time of the year, let alone March.

Coming down off the ridge where Blue Trail drops into the Waterton and Belly River basins, I could make out Chief Mountain and the line of other peaks trailing off to the south but they were partially obscured by a soft, blue haze of ice crystals suspended in the still air. At Glenwood, maybe 20 kilometres further south, I checked the temperature on my phone. It was -22 C, nearly 10 degrees colder than an hour’s drive to the north.

Temperature anomalies aside, it was a gorgeous day. The mountains to the west, less obscured by the haze because of the angle of the light, stood tall and white against the blue sky and the snow-covered ground undulated like a white carpet over the hills. I could see a few eagles perched in the cottonwoods along the Belly River — too far off for pictures — and the dark dotted lines of geese flying across the horizon.

In fact, there were a lot of geese flying across the horizon.

Canada geese fly in to help themselves to cattle feed near Glenwood, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Closer to Hill Spring I found a couple of hundred of them helping themselves to cattle fodder in a feed lot and more of them foraging in the snow in nearby fields. Backlit by the sun, I could see little puffs of their breath as they sang out in a constant chorus of honks as groups of them flew in and others took off. The cattle ignored them.

Looking around at all that snow, I was surprised to see so many of them. But, of course, the Waterton Reservoir was only a few kilometres away and there was bound to be a lot of open water below the dam, so I went to have a look.

There was a ton of geese there along with mallards and goldeneyes and there was a constant exchange as flocks flew in and others took off. I’d half-expected it to be frozen over given the evil cold of the previous few days but nope, the water from the dam was warm enough to hold the ice at bay.

Hundreds of ducks and geese on the Waterton River near Hill Spring, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

And, most likely, so was the radiant heat from the sun. Stopping to photograph pair of bald eagles near their massive nest in a stand of cottonwoods close by — yes, they’re already back and about to start a new family — I could see the air rippling from the sun’s heat through my long lens. The air was cold but the sun was powering right through.

Bald eagles back on their nest near Waterton Reservoir on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

The side of streets of Hill Spring were heaped with plowed snow but that did little to hide the beauty of this pretty little town and just on the south side near Dipping Vat Lake, I found horses lunching on hay. Chief Mountain, just across the Montana border, stood tall behind them, its distinctive peak shadowed and semi-silhouetted against the hazy sky.

Pausing mid-munch, the horses stood and stared at me, puffs of breath from their nostrils steaming backlit in the cold air. More geese here, too, relaxing in the snow and waiting to help themselves to leftovers after the horses were done.

A quartet of horses with Montana’s Chief Mountain behind them at Hill Spring, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I kept going south and found more eagles perched in the trees. It’s calving time now and the eagles, both the balds and the goldens, are making their way back from their wintering grounds so they take advantage of the bounty of biological byproducts left behind after the cows give birth. Calving pens, like this one right beside the highway at Blue Ridge Hutterite Colony, provide a nice buffet for the eagles. And ravens and magpies and every other scavenger.

I crossed the Belly River and kept going toward Mountain View but I just had to stop up on the bench lands to shoot some pictures. There were mule deer out in the fields and geese flying around and for once, here on the flats where it’s often roaring down from the mountains and blasting across the plains, the wind wasn’t blowing. I pulled over, shut the truck off and relaxed.

With the windows down, the truck was filled with cold air — better for pictures — but the sun was warm. I noticed a quartet of horses a little further up from the deer so I photographed them, too, and then angled the seat back to just look around and listen to the silence. Yeah, I coulda napped.

But instead, I kept going south.

I stopped down the road at Mountain View — another pair of eagles there — and then headed east before turning down toward Beazer in the Lee Creek valley. There were new calves in a couple of places where snow had been cleared and straw put out for bedding and more deer up on the rough sandstone ridges. Down in the creek valley it was even colder, the dense, cold air pocketed in the lowest spots.

New calves relax in the sun near Mountain View, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

On now toward Police Outpost Provincial Park, a dozen kilometres straight south of Beazer. The snow was heavier here, though, so I couldn’t do much. I found a whitetail deer close by but, after pausing for maybe 15 seconds on a ridge, it flipped into whitetail panic mode and trotted off.

A whitetail deer ready to run across a snowy hilltop near Beazer, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

I figured I might loop around and come back by Beazer so I cut east. Driving by a ranch house I spotted an entire clowder of cats — must have been 30 of them — and stopped to take a picture of a bunch of them huddled together for warmth on top of a round hay bale. Cat ranching, who woulda thought? I hear they’re pretty much un-herdable.

I hear these ranch critters are hard to herd. A clowder of cats south of Beazer, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Tiny St. Stephen church was just down the road and it looked so nice tucked into its snowy coulee-side location that I just had to stop for a picture. But the snow was even deeper over here and the side roads I wanted to explore were drifted over. Pretty, but they blocked the way.

So I backtracked toward Beazer and found ranchers Neil Leishman and Chase Shipley cutting out cows that looked ready to give birth from a herd near the ranch buildings. It looked like pretty cold work for both them and their horses and in the few minutes I stood there taking pictures and video, my fingers felt like they were about to seize up.

Neil Leishman cuts out cows that look ready to calve near Beazer, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

Back in the warm truck, I headed toward Cardston following Lee Creek. Such lovely rolling country around there. More eagles, more deer, a single elk by itself out on a snowy hillside. The light fading, I cut through Cardston and then back across toward Glenwood, stopping for pictures of a great horned owl — mate on a nest nearby, no doubt — before hitting Blue Trail again.

A great horned owl ready for the evening hunt near Glenwood, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

The low sun was behind a bank of clouds and accompanied by a pair of prismatic sundogs to the west as I descended into the Oldman River valley and hundreds of geese were flying into a field near the road. Their shapes silhouetted against the backlit clouds, I watched for them to pass close to the sundogs as I shot my pictures. The sky looked warm in the setting sun.

But it wasn’t. As I headed on home, I checked the weather on my phone. It was now a balmy -16 C.

Canada geese fly past a sundog as they head out to feed north of Glenwood, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

But there was a chinook on the way. Hill Spring and Mountain View would soon be wrapped in wind and warmth and that uncommon quiet I found near there will be long gone. Beazer will have experienced a temperature swing from around -40 C to maybe as high as 10 C. In just one week.

Rolling on, I smiled as I looked at the phone’s forecast.

Springtime in Alberta. Seriously, you just gotta love it.

Heading into the Lee Creek valley at Beazer, Ab. on Tuesday, March 5, 2019. Mike Drew/Postmedia

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